Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds is delighted to welcome The Showstoppers back with two performances of Showstopper! The Improvised Musical – where a fully realised musical will be created from scratch each night, live on stage and based on audience suggestions (Fri 24 & Sat 25 Jan, 7.30pm). This year they will also present The Showstoppers’ Kids Show – where they only take suggestions from the children in the audience (Sat 25 Jan, 3pm).
The talented cast transform suggestions of setting, genre and style into a full length musical, with dance routines, moving story-lines, amazing songs, full-group harmonies and hilarious characters. The audience can even name that night’s show which is then added to The Showstoppers’ archive.
The show began life in 2008 as a workshop at the Actors’ Centre in London, when Dylan Emery, Adam Meggido and Ken Campbell took a group of actors with little or no improvisation experience and within a week attempted to get them to perform an hour-long extemporised musical in front of a packed house. This was such a success that Dylan and Adam decided to gather a group of professionals and create a fully-fledged show. Over ten years later it’s still going, stronger than ever thanks to the year-round tours, Edinburgh Fringe runs and most recently a London West End residency at The Other Palace, on top of their monthly Mondays at the Lyric, Shaftesbury Avenue.
More recently the team have branched out with a children’s version of their show – The Showstoppers’ Kids Show – where ideas and imaginations will be brought to life on stage. Every insane suggestion, every inspired idea, every joyful noise will get used to create a bonkers, brilliant and hilarious show. The audience decides where the story is set, what happens next and who the characters are. And for those who fancy it, there are always plenty of opportunities to join in the fun.
Showstopper! The Improvised Musical has two performances at Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds (which means two brand new fully-realised musicals, one per night) Fri 24 & Sat 25 Jan. The Showstoppers’ Kids Show has one performance, Sat 25 Jan at 3pm.
Tickets for both shows are now on sale via the box office, call 01284 769505, book online at theatreroyal.org/showstopper-the-improvised-musical and theatreroyal.org/the-showstoppers-kids-show respectively, or visit the theatre in person.
